Dermopathies are an important sanitary issue whose incidence is steadily increasing. Dermopathies comprise cutaneous affections characterized by cell hyperproliferation, such as e.g., psoriasis, dandruff, skin tumors and actinic keratosis.
The most frequent among the dermopathies are psoriasis and dermatitis, such as for example:
Atopic dermatitis: usually of psychosomatic origin.
> Contact dermatitis: It is a reaction of the body to specific allergens with which it gets into contact. It manifests itself with redness, scabs and skin desquamation.
Seborrheic dermatitis: this type involves mainly body areas more prone to sebum secretion, such as for example the scalp.
Chronic dermatitis: it is an inflammatory reaction with activation of the immune system which involves the skin and shows itself initially as an irritation spread to different body parts and has a chronic progress, of the relapsing type.
Non-specific dermatitis: it can be occasional and shows with redness and/or desquamation, possibly with itching, that can not be related to precise pathological causes.
Psoriasis is a widespread pathology and is one of most common types of chronic dermatitis that involves skin and in particular the stratum corneum. From an etiopathological point of view it is an inflammatory reaction with activation of the immune system which affects the skin and initially shows itself as an irritation spread to different parts of the body.
Psoriasis is not an infective pathology but generally shows with a chronic progress of the relapsing type. It is characterized by the occurrence of red and desquamating spots that are localized to some body parts such as elbows, hand palms, knees, feet soles and scalp.
Psoriasis prevalence in the general population is estimated to be between 1 and 3%, in general one third of the patients shows with the first appearance of psoriasis already during infancy or adolescence.
The etiology of psoriasis is still unknown and the available data seem to point to a multifactorial origin; genetical and environmental factors are, as a matter of fact, involved in the onset and progress of this pathology.
Psoriasis can be considered an hereditary disease with a familial tract.
Psoriasis occurs with a varied symptomatology. This pathology can, as a matter of fact, occur as:
Plaque psoriasis: the most common type from a clinical point of view; the typical lesion is a well defined erythematous plaque covered with silvery desquamating scales, similar to mica. The single plaques can have different diameters and can merge to cover whole body areas.
Guttate psoriasis: it occurs in young subjects after a streptococcal tonsillar infection. 1 mm to 1 cm papulae appear on the skin mainly on the body trunk having the appearance of raindrops.
Pustular psoriasis: this type can occur with a localized or generalized character; in particular, the former occurs mainly on the hand palms and on feet soles. In this case small subcorneal vesicles appear that get to the surface and desquamate.
Erythroderma! psoriasis: this is a serious type of psoriasis where all the skin surface becomes erythematous and desquamated. This type can be caused by drugs, stress, concurrent diseases.
Seborrhoic psoriasis: a very common type also called sebopsoriasis or seboriasis. It is characterized by lesions that are very similar to seborrhoic dermatitis, but can involve areas that normally are not involved.
Psoriasis amiantacea: it is a type that only involves the scalp. Usually it is a juvenile affection.
Psoriatic lesions usually occur hystologically as hyperproliferating areas, with a 10-fold increased epidermal turnover with respect to normal skin, with and incomplete maturation of keratinocytes and nuclei retained in the stratum corneum (parakeratosis), with neovascularization processes, increased blood flow, protein exudates and immature lymph vessels. The appearance of psoriatic plaques on skin surface is also linked to polymorph neutrophils infiltration in the epidermis. In addition, the healthy skin in psoriatic patients shows with structural modifications and in these subjects the progress of the pathology has a favorable progression after the occurrence of a traumatic event (Koebner phenomenon). Also, psoriatic subjects have more intense turnover cycles with respect to those not affected by this pathology and show an increased cell DNA synthesis and higher glycogen levels in the lesions with respect to the skin from non-psoriatic subjects.
This effect seems to be related with the functional modification of the cell-mediated immune system (T lymphocytes) and of the epidermal response to cytokines that carry out a fundamental role in the genesis and progress of this disease.
Cytokines are protein molecules produces by different cell types and are secreted in the surrounding medium, usually in response to a specific stimulus; they are able to modulate the behavior of different cells by stimulating their growth, differentiation and death. Their action is usually local, but sometimes they have a beneficial effect on the whole body. Interleukins have an etiopathogenic role in different diseases that have been discovered in the last few years; as a matter of fact, T cells that produce type 1, 6 and 8 interleukins have an important role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. In particular interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine produced by many cell types among which monocytes macrophages, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, keratinocytes, T cells, B cells, neutrophils.
Current therapies for dermopathies in general and for psoriasis in particular provide biomedical approaches that include as first-line drugs in the limited-extension types topical emollient preparations such as vaseline, cortisone formulations and/or reducing agents (tar or ditranol), keratolytic agents (salicilic acid and/or urea) and vitamin D analogs. In the case of generalized types of psoriasis, sometimes systemic therapies are used such as phototherapy with UVB or UVA and psoralens (photochemotherapy or PUVA therapy), retinoid use (acitretin and etretinate) or cyclosporin A.
Biological drugs have been recently introduced such as monoclonal antibodies, cytokines (interferons and interleukins), fusion proteins and tissue growth factors.
Daphne laureola L., (Italian: dame laurella), is a species of Daphne, in the Thymelaeaceae family. It is an evergreen plant with green-yellowish flowers that mature into black berries in the late summer. D. laureola L. (DL) can be from 50 to 150 cm in height. The bark is thin and grey-yellowish when mature, while the young branches are green. The alternate inserted leaves usually give thick spirals toward the top of the buds, but can also cover whole branches. The leaves are lanceolated or oboval-lanceolated, 2-13 cm in length and 1-3 cm in width. They are hairless, dark green, shiny on the upper face and brighter on the lower face. It grows both in the sun and in the shadow and it gets easily adapted to the temperate underwood. The reproduction can be both by seed and by radical sprouts.
It is known in the prior art (CN 101181427) the antipsoriatic action of extracts obtained from a combination or different plants. Among the different components of this mixture Daphne genkwa (DG) can be found, a plant from Asia and belonging to the same family as DL, but, unlike DL that is an evergreen, this plant is deciduous. It is also distinguished from DL for its flowers of an unusual lilac-blue with amethyst hues.
It is also known from a very old patent application (GB 479688, dated 1936) the use of DL for the treatment of eczema in animals. Anyway, it is described the use of leaves, simply dried or withered, to be mixed with animal fodder, pointing thus to an oral use. This approach is not applicable to the use in humans since DL and other species of Daphne resulted as toxic if ingested, so that their oral use in humans is not advisable (“Natural remedies and Nutriceuticals Used in Ethnoveterinary Practices in Inland Southern Italy”—Pieroni et al.).
The ingestion of Daphne has very serious consequences and can be lethal as reported by et al. in “Isolation and structure of daphnetoxin, the poisonous principle of Daphne species”.
It as thus felt the need for a product that could be used topically and that could have an increased effectiveness with respect to the prior art to dermopathies in general and in particular to skin tumors and psoriasis and that could be useful not only in the pharmaceutical field, but also for personal hygiene in all the skin diseases related to dermopathies.